In radio frequency (RF) transceiver systems, a magnetic circulator is frequently used to enable simultaneous signal transmission and reception over a single antenna. The magnetic circulator routes the signals between a transmit (TX) port, an antenna port, and a receive (RX) port while providing isolation between the TX port and the RX port. The magnetic circulator includes a permanent magnet which causes signals to pass through its material along one direction, such that signals travel from the TX port to the antenna port and from the antenna port to the RX port.
The size of a magnetic circulator is inversely proportional to frequency of the signals which propagate through it and can become very large for lower frequency applications. Accordingly, magnetic circulators in wide band RF transceivers can be bulky and expensive due to the use of larger permanent magnets.